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| Fruits of a pandhu lily growing from a bulb planted by my Mother in the laterite soil of Thiruvananthapuram |
She was not a stranger in the city she lived in, a city chock-a-block with the best hospitals, well-connected with transport facilities and…full of Her relatives.
Yet when She had a stroke, no one came to attend to Her. It took Her one whole week to get to a hospital for treatment. Her son who had taken premature retirement on the grounds of caring for Her yet lived 500 kilometers away working at another job, did not come to Her aid in time. Her daughter-in-law who had Her sympathy for being the impoverished daughter of an alcoholic yet herself too lazy to work for a living and on whom She showered Her love, time and the finest jewels, only held Her in contempt for Her large belly (“no abs at all”) and was too indifferent to care.
I, Her daughter, living over 2000 kilometers away was giving care to my own disabled daughter and her father himself recovering from a recent stroke.
Her niece who was thought to be close to Her and whom She had rescued from a consanguineous marriage to a man she despised whose mother she lived in mortal fear of, ensured that I, Her daughter couldn’t pay Her my last respects. She was cremated before I arrived within a few hours of Her passing.
Remembering my Mother on Her 8th Death Anniversary.
Will the Uniform Civil Code in India further alienate women from traditionally matriarchal & matrilocal cultures?
